Almost seven months after the Committee to Commemorate the Centenary of the Genocide in Šahovići (today's Tomaševo) announced that it would propose to the Assembly the adoption of a resolution condemning that crime, that document has not yet entered the parliamentary procedure because no MP has signed it.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the highest legislative chamber, it is enough for one parliamentarian to sign the proposal for it to formally enter the Assembly.
The text of the proposed resolution on the massacre, the centenary of which will soon be celebrated, was written by the head of the Islamic community in Montenegro. Rifat Fejzic and academician Sherbo Rastoder, and delivered it to parliamentary clubs in mid-February. However, as "Vijesti" wrote, most of them did not want to say whether they would support him. They are the only ones from the Democratic People's Party (DNP) Milan Knežević said that they would not vote for the adoption of that resolution.
Where it got stuck
Rastoder told "Vijesta" yesterday that he thinks that the reasons why the proposal of the document has not yet found its way into the parliamentary procedure are purely political in nature. He says that "the fact was 'hidden' for a long time" that, of the 24 members of the board of which he is a part, only the vice-president of the Bosniak Party (BS) is Jasmin Ćorović was against sending the proposal to the Assembly. He claims that the text was "unreservedly corrupted" by the deputy of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). Abaz Dizdarević, his party colleague and leader of Petnjica Samir Agovic, all board members from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and some BS officials, such as Rahman Husović, Ermina Čindrak i Tufika Drndara.
"Simply surprising, but expected. We knew both then and later that the top of the party (BS) was playing political matches and was conducting semi-secret negotiations regarding positioning in the government. While they were out of power "we spared them and kept them from themselves", but now, when they are officially and formally in power, things are as follows - party president Ervin Ibrahimovic informed me that he agreed on the position with the president of the club of representatives of the BS Amer Smailović, that that club will present a proposal for the adoption of the resolution at the first following session of the Assembly, when the procedure allows it. One may think that it is 'another mere political promise', but I appreciate that it is not so. Because the memory of Šahović will surely survive, and whether those who were and are 'against' that memory - it is very questionable," said Rastoder.
Ćorović claims for "Vijesti" that he was against sending the resolution to the parliament because of Rastoder's attitude towards the politicians in the committee, because of the violation of the agreement on the way to mark the centenary of the crime in Šahovići, and because of some parts of the text of the resolution proposal, with which, he says, he did not agree.
He states that, according to the agreement of the first meeting of the board, the centenary celebration should have included organizing a scientific-historical gathering in Bijelo Polje, holding a funeral service for the victims of the massacre and determining the possibility of possibly setting up a memorial. He claims that there was no talk of a resolution, and that Rastoder "later initiated the initiative to draft and send that document to the Legislative Chamber on his own initiative".
"When I asked why this was done without consulting us, the board members, I received the following answer: 'You politicians don't need to know everything.' Because of such a relationship, and the violation of the original agreement, and above all because of the content of the text of the resolution itself, which contained certain, for me, unacceptable parts, I was against it. And not as an official of BS, but I voted in my own name, which I emphasized at the meeting," said Ćorović.
His party colleague and until recently MP Ibrahimović did not answer the question of "Vijesti" why he did not support putting the proposed resolution in the parliamentary procedure. To the same question, the paper did not receive an answer from DPS deputy Dizdarević either.
Resolution upon resolution
Explaining the claim that the issue of the crime in Šahovići did not end in the Parliament due to political reasons, Rastoder said that the head of the parliament Andrija Mandic (New Serbian Democracy) "assessed that the resolution can be obstructed by a counter-resolution", which, he says, turned out to be an infantile and transparent political gesture, "conceived in the minds of those who are used to justifying all crimes with a construction and an alleged counter-question - 'what they worked for us'”.
At the end of February, representatives of several associations of citizens of the Vraneška Valley submitted to the head of the parliament a proposal for a "counter-resolution" - "on the genocide committed against the Serbian people of Vraneš by Turks, Bosniaks, and Muslims, which was committed in 1906." Rastoder told "Vijesta" earlier that month that he had spoken with Mandić about the resolution in Šahovići, and that they had a fair conversation.
"When at the organized scientific gathering in Bijelo Polje on July 1, such people were offered to present alleged 'arguments' with their participation, they 'hid', convinced that 'Serbian patriotic interest is a lie,' as he claimed. Dobrica Cosic. In addition, at the scientific gathering, the representatives of the Montenegrin intellectual public very loudly and resolutely distanced themselves from this dirtiest act in recent Montenegrin history, saying loudly that it is not and cannot be the historical heritage of Montenegro, but only the criminal ideology of Greater Serbia, which is the same thing. repeated in almost the same area in January 1943 - that is, less than twenty years later", he stated.
Rastoder assessed that the reason for this can be sought in the need to defend the ideology behind the crime and which seeks to establish a system through its political rehabilitation in which crimes are committed against others and others - a "normal occurrence".
"If it is not so, after the adoption of the Resolution on Piva and Velica, I do not see any reason not to proceed in the same way in this case, even though the genocide in Šahovići cannot be compared to those on which the resolution was adopted. "Simply, the descendants of those who were killed still live in Piva and Velica, while in the Vraneška valley there are no more 'Turkish ears,' as the Greater Serbian nationalists would say," added the interlocutor.
The resolution on the genocide in Piva and Velica was adopted by the Assembly in July 2022.
"Political immaturity"
Asked if he had any announcements from any parliamentary group that they would put the resolution in the parliamentary procedure, Rastoder replied that they are not "so politically and intellectually immature" that they do not see "who is sitting in the Montenegrin parliament". According to him, the resolution "was and is a test for the advocates of civil politics in Montenegro, not for 'political matchmakers', which are most like those who are full of Europe, 'civic Montenegro', reconciliation, etc."
"We were fully aware of the fact that the political elite in Montenegro is currently demonstrating such political immaturity that they give incoherent answers to every question that requires a clear and decisive position. Instead of putting an end to this, like any other similar issue, with a clear value and moral definition of the crime as such, with this behavior they only provoked the fact that the same issue will be discussed every year," said the academician.
In the text of the proposed resolution, Rastoder and Fejzić stated that the crime in Šahovići took place in peacetime conditions in 1924, and that it was never prosecuted. As reasons for voting the resolution, they state that a mass crime was committed against Muslim life in the Vraneška valley, and that the reason for it was an ambush murder. Boško Bošković, the retired head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time, in the town of Ceru, who was passing by with his cousin Miletom, who was wounded on that occasion.
"After Bošković was killed, the person against whom interpellations were filed in the National Assembly for arrogant and illegal behavior, his body was brought to the church in Mojkovac. Although he was not a representative of the authorities at the time, nor was he on duty, without any evidence, during the funeral, a false assumption and the news that Boško Bošković was killed by Muslim committees was spread. Jusuf Mehonjic i Husein Boskovic, although since 1923 they were not on that ground, but in Albania", stated the authors of the proposal.
Unknown number of victims
As they added, the mayor of Bjelopolje and other representatives of the government (Nikodim Cemović, Gojko Terić, Lazar Bogicevic and Dr. uz Sekula Bošković) called the people gathered after the funeral of Bošković to "revenge", announcing that they had "free hands to sanctify Bošk within the next 24 hours".
The authors point out that the "avengers", about 2.000 of them, mostly from the surrounding area, killed the Muslim population in Šahovići and Pavino polje in turn. They state that in a length of 19 kilometers they "burned down all the Muslim houses, robbed and killed everyone they found".
"The number of those killed remains unknown for the reason that no investigation has been initiated and the number of those killed is quoted, depending on the source, from 100 to 1.200... The result of this crime was: the entire Muslim population from this area was killed, robbed and expelled. "Rare examples of rescue of individuals by Orthodox neighbors indicate the need to affirm the good in people," they stated.
The descendants of the expelled and victims of this crime live, as they add, in various places in Sandžak, and in the villages of Islamovac and Gornji Rahići near Brčko (BiH), 400 of them, as well as in other places in this neighboring country and in various places in Turkey.
Rastoder: There are not enough people on the public scene who oppose crimes
When asked if he thinks it's okay that even after more than half a year, the resolution proposal is not in the procedure, Rastoder says that it would be a surprise for him if "those who decide on it expressed a resolute opposition to the killing of innocent people".
"Since I don't see enough of them on the public scene, I'm sure it's fine for them. But, that is "not right" for a significant part of Montenegro, which does not think so. I believe that this will be shown already on September 28, when the 'collective funeral' or public commemoration is being prepared in Bijelo Polje on the occasion of 100 years since the genocide in Šahovići," he said.
As he added, he is sure that "thousands of people who announce their arrival from all over the world will then send a clear message to everyone that it is a shame to defend or hide behind crimes against innocent people, whoever committed them and in whose name".
"I'm sure that there will be enough people who will shout 'in my name - no'" said Rastoder.
Jasenovac, Piva and Velika, Srebrenica, Ukraine, Podgorica Assembly...
In the past years, several resolutions were adopted in the Montenegrin parliament.
The last one, voted at the end of June, is the Resolution on Genocide in the Jasenovac camp system and the Dachau and Mauthausen camps.
Apart from it, in July 2022, the parliamentarians adopted the Resolution on the occasion of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, as well as the Resolution on the genocide in Piva and Velika.
A year before that, the Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica was voted, while in 2018 the Resolution was adopted canceling the decisions of the Podgorica Assembly from 1918.
Bonus video:
